13 Nov 2008

American Samoa student wins science symposium with mosquito project

8:22 pm on 13 November 2008

A senior student at American Samoa's Tafuna High School, Samuel Meleisea, has won a science symposium with a project aiming to help reduce mosquito numbers.

He was inspired by American Samoa regularly experiencing dengue fever outbreaks due to mosquitoes.

Mr Meleisea is to present his paper and defend his research findings at the Hawaii science symposium next month.

He says he decided to test the impact of phytochemicals in the leaves of 3 local plants, the Sasalapa, Mosooi and the Neem tree.

"We used that to try to kill the mosquito larvae found here in American Samoa. We are trying to find out other ways that may have properties to kill mosquito species found in American Samoa, because I know the species found here in American Samoa carries dengue fever."